Stripe Error Codes: Complete Reference for SaaS Founders
When a Stripe payment fails, the last thing you want is a vague error. This reference explains every Stripe error and decline code with real causes, fix steps, and how each affects your MRR. Use it to diagnose failures, tune retries and dunning, and recover more revenue. Rackz maintains this guide for SaaS founders who monitor Stripe payment health in real time.
About this guide
This reference is maintained by the Rackz team. Rackz monitors Stripe payment health in real time for SaaS founders.
The Stripe insufficient_funds error occurs when the card or account has insufficient available balance to complete the charge, causing failed renewals and lost MRR for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe lost_card error occurs when the cardholder has reported the card as lost and the issuer has frozen it, causing declines and potential MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe stolen_card error occurs when the card has been reported stolen by the cardholder and the issuer declines all transactions, causing failed charges and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe expired_card error occurs when the card's expiration date has passed and the issuer declines the charge, causing failed renewals and MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe incorrect_cvc error occurs when the CVC/CVV entered by the customer does not match the issuer's record, causing the charge to be declined and potential MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe card_velocity_exceeded error occurs when the customer has exceeded the card's balance, credit limit, or transaction limit, causing the issuer to decline and potential MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe do_not_honor error occurs when the card issuer declines the transaction without providing a specific reason, causing failed charges and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe fraudulent error occurs when Stripe or the issuer suspects the payment is fraudulent, causing the charge to be declined; Stripe requires presenting this as a generic decline to customers for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe generic_decline error occurs when the card is declined for an unspecified reason or blocked by Stripe Radar or Adaptive Acceptance, causing failed charges and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe card_not_supported error occurs when the card does not support the type of purchase (e.g. recurring or international), causing the charge to be declined and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe currency_not_supported error occurs when the card does not support the currency in which the charge was made, causing the decline and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe duplicate_transaction error occurs when a transaction with the same amount and card information was submitted very recently, causing the issuer or network to decline to prevent duplicate charges for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe incorrect_pin error occurs when the PIN entered at a card reader is incorrect, causing the issuer to decline; this applies to card-present (e.g. reader) payments for SaaS or in-person scenarios processing subscription or one-time payments.
The Stripe invalid_account error occurs when the card or the account linked to the card is invalid, causing the issuer to decline and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe invalid_amount error occurs when the payment amount is invalid or exceeds the amount the issuer allows, causing the charge to be declined and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe no_action_taken error occurs when the card issuer declines the transaction without specifying a reason, causing failed charges and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe not_permitted error occurs when the issuer does not permit the payment (e.g. transaction type or merchant category), causing the decline and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe restricted_card error occurs when the card is restricted (e.g. reported lost or stolen) and cannot be used for the payment, causing the decline and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe revocation_of_all_authorizations error occurs when the card issuer declines the transaction (possibly after revoking authorizations), causing failed charges and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe security_violation error occurs when the card issuer declines the transaction (possibly due to a security concern), causing failed charges and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe service_not_allowed error occurs when the card issuer declines the transaction (e.g. service type not allowed), causing failed charges and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe stop_payment_order error occurs when the card issuer declines the transaction (e.g. due to a stop payment order), causing failed charges and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe transaction_not_allowed error occurs when the card issuer does not allow the transaction (e.g. type or context), causing the decline and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe authentication_required error occurs when the card issuer requires 3D Secure or SCA and the transaction was not authenticated, causing soft declines and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe card_declined error occurs when the card issuer declines the charge; the specific reason is in decline_code, causing failed payments and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe incorrect_number error occurs when the card number provided is incorrect, causing the charge to be declined and potential MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe invalid_expiry_month error occurs when the card's expiration month is invalid, causing the request to fail and potential MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe invalid_expiry_year error occurs when the card's expiration year is invalid, causing the request to fail and potential MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe invalid_cvc error occurs when the CVC/CVV is incorrect or invalid, causing the charge to be declined and potential MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe processing_error error occurs when an error happened while processing the card (e.g. issuer or network issue), causing the charge to fail and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe rate_limit error occurs when too many API requests are sent in a short time, causing Stripe to return 429 and block further requests until the limit resets, which can delay or fail charges for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe payment_intent_authentication_failure error occurs when 3D Secure or SCA was required but not completed or failed, causing the payment to fail and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe payment_method_not_available error occurs when the selected payment method is not available for this transaction (e.g. currency or country), causing the charge to fail and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe account_closed error occurs when the customer's account (e.g. bank or card account) is closed, causing the payment method to be invalid and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe no_account error occurs when there is no valid account associated with the payment method, causing the charge to fail and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe amount_too_large error occurs when the payment amount exceeds the allowed limit (Stripe or issuer), causing the charge to fail and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe amount_too_small error occurs when the payment amount is below the minimum allowed for the currency or Stripe, causing the charge to fail for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe api_connection_error error occurs when your server cannot connect to Stripe's API (e.g. network or DNS failure), causing requests to fail and potential MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe api_error error occurs when Stripe's servers encounter an error (HTTP 5xx), causing the request to fail and potential MRR loss for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe idempotency_error error occurs when an Idempotency-Key is reused with a request that does not match the first request's endpoint or parameters, causing Stripe to return 409 for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe resource_missing error occurs when the requested resource (e.g. Customer, PaymentIntent) does not exist or was deleted, causing the API call to fail with 404 and potential MRR impact for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.
The Stripe webhook_delivery_failure situation occurs when Stripe cannot deliver webhook events to your endpoint (timeout, non-2xx, or unreachable), causing your app to be out of sync and MRR risk for SaaS businesses processing subscription payments.